United States of America: Opened Public Consultation on Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions

On 13 February 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) opened a public consultation on the inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventions until 13 May 2024. The guidance, which is issued in accordance with the requirements of s.5.2(c)(i) of the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, provides clarity on how the USPTO will analyse inventorship issues as AI systems play a greater role in the innovation process. The guidance explains that while AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable, the inventorship analysis should focus on human contributions. Patent protection may be sought for inventions for which a natural person provided a significant contribution to the invention. Despite AI's involvement in the invention process, patent applications and patents must exclusively name natural persons who significantly contributed to the invention as inventors or joint inventors. Applications and patents must not list any non-natural entity as an inventor, even if an AI system was instrumental in the creation of the invention.